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Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 318, 8 January 1909, Page 2

BItITA!N\S NK\Y NAVAL POLICY. A very inipuitii.it chapter in Ihe development uf British naval policy in process of being inn'olded, says a Home paper. Till a low years ago the grcal naval forces uf Britain were distributed all gver the world very much as they were in Nelson's time; but tlien a "revolution'' took place, ami the Heels wencnlleil home and concentrated in Home wafers, ehielly in th;- Knglish Ciiannet. Tlicu there was the rise uf Dover as a naval port, and since that the pivot of naval strategy has swung through the .Straits, and is now somewhere near the nioulh of the Thames. The Norc is the coming "blue ribbon" command, ami the Nore division of the Home licet is already the most modern and powerful of the squadrons. As the perception of (•ernian naval ambitions has dawned more and more clearly on the Urilish Admiralty they have awakened more and more widely to the'needs of Hid East Coast, This is why Kosyth is being preyed oil. the Mcdway dredged, submarines built at Chatham, ami oil fuel deputs funned at Shields. and in the llumber, while a great licet uf large vessels is based on the mouth of the) Thames lleels con-tantly patrol up and dow;i the coast, and naval manoeuvres lake place for the li/st time on record in the North Sea. The next step will be the putting into practice of a scheme, said to be now under consideration, for ilie de eiu-e of lire commercial ports up and down the Kast Coast. There is reason to believe, says the paper, that the Admiralty will not rely on the submarines that they at iirst thought would adequately replace the abolished mineliclds. ihci'e will be a chain of torpedo craft ilotill.is instead. Submarines will be used, but the mainstay of the scheme • will be ilie destroyers. Jiougliiy, the outline of the scheme is this: —At thv Xore there v.'if! be one of the new scouts, the swiftest of the kind, with half n dozen M-kuot destroyers. At I'l'lixfjlowe there will be submarines and more destroyers, and-other llolillas will be based on, though not nccessarilv permanently stationed al, the mouth of the llumber (<Jrimsbyi, the mouth of lh« 'Jyne t Shield- J, the mouth of the Tav (Dundee), and the mouth of the Forth (Jiosyth). thus the < ? hief points of commercial and stralegical imjiortanct* will be provided with projection from a sudden raid. According to furl her information. I hat seems quite reliable. [} K . duties of these destroyer llotillas will lie to defend Hie ports, rivers and harbors which now lie so perilously open to attack. The Tyno. with its crowded shippingl, and valuable warships building, has already been visited j'ruquc.nly l!y torpedo craft during the Minimer now past, and in. the near future the more constant presence of the llolilla will give 'the populations iu the great centre* of indiMry on the North-ea*t Coast a fe-l-ing of greater security. So with liic "Iher rivers. Special vessels -w.-M be built lor the purpose —small, swill, and well armed—and when the scheme is fully elaborated there will be a ring of defensive steel all down the British coast.